5k Training

How have things been going since the marathon? Yeh it may have been if you were there as well. I was wearing a blue Bristol Half Marathon top and vibram shoes? How did you get on at Dulwich? I thought it was so much easier than the Brockwell one but may still keep doing Brockwell from time to time as its fewer laps and the hill is good for training.

Haha, how weird! Yes, really enjoyed Dulwich... it was good to just blast round and not get held up by the hills. Nearly 2 minutes off my PB is a nice little bonus too! I'm doing a flat 10k in a few weeks (Old Deer Park, if that interests you at all), so it's a good comparison, reckon I should be able to beat my 10k PB there.

I've been quite busy since I last posted here, have done a couple of triathlons this summer and Royal Parks Half Marathon a feww weeks ago too (2:01:01, a PB by 18 minutes). However, I'm having knee surgery in 26th November, so will be out of action for a few weeks after that - I'm trying to fit everything in before that!

Great work on your half marathon time, that is quite an improvement! Which marathon are you doing?

No way. Was that me? If so apologies for smelling like beer still. thought I would try and run off the night before and it actually kind of worked. Could have been the cold that did it though. Nice one on the PB (5k and HM) and sorry to hear about the op, have you been working towards a quick 5k as well? I'm looking to do a 10k soon actually so will have a look into the Old Deer Park one. I'm doing the London Marathon and really can't wait. Going to take some propper training mind

Richard, good luck with your sub 20 minute 5K target. I also set myself a target of a sub 20 min 5K by the end of 2012. My parkrun PB from last month stands at 21.01 and shortly afterwards I managed 20.52 at a 5K in London (Hyde Park).

Is Dulwich parkrun a quick course? I've got a couple of parkrun events near where I live in South london/Surrey which are flattish but both are partlyon grass anf have beem muddy and hard work of late. I know Crystal Palace is all on raod/path but pretty tough I imagine due to the hilly nature of the are.

Have a couple of 10k's coming up next month a distance I haven't run since 2008. Fancy having a go in the near future at a HM but lack the dedication necessary to do a marathon. A work colleague recently did the Royal Parks HM and managed a huge PB there so may give this a go next year. I love running in Central London.

I've only done one other park run but dulwich is 3 laps of a flat course and all on road so I assume its one of the faster ones. I wasn't aware that there was one in Hyde park though so I may do that at some point. Good lick with the training for the 10k, if its one where there will be supporters that will easily be enough to moivate you to the end. I saw there was another HM in London over the weekend sponsored by Nike which looked pretty good. Do you know which half you would do?

Hyde Park 5K isn't a parkrun. Its a race held on the last Friday of each month (usually a 12.30 start I think) organised by the Serpentine Running Club. Entry fee is £4.00 (£2.00 if your a member of a running club). It all on paths around Hyde Park and pretty flat though last 400 metres is slightly uphill which you certainly notice. The numbers aren't huge and usually split into an 'A' race for sub 22 min runners and a B race for others. Very popular so spaces go pretty quick. Am having another go next month. Love parkruns and don't mind hills but not a huge fan of mud and puddles.

Both 10k's I'm doing are on road and mostly flat so offer good PB potential. Online calculators suggest I should be capabale of around 43.30 based on my 5k times of 21 mins or just under.

HM is something I'll probably leave until early next year as need to do more mileage. I usually do one longish run of 8-10 miles most weeks but haven't gone further than this for sometime.

I have a current 5km PB of 25:38 and looking for tips to bring it down over the next two months before I start marathon spring training. I run 4 times a week for about 20-25miles. I'm seeing benefits in my half marathon times but struggle with the speed stuff.

About this time last year or a bit earlier, I had an average 5k time of around 27mins. I have to say, and everyone on here advocates as well, that parkruns are a really good way to measure your progress as and when you can make it down to them.

As for speeding up, I found that the best thing for me was joining my local running club. Quite often they run (excuse the pun) various interval sessions which I have found helped me run a lot faster in all distances. For my last half marathon, I mostly did one of these in a week and then a normal run in the weekend and my time tumbled. If you can get down to one I would thoroughly recommend it but if not, there are loads of interval sessions which you can do on your own which you can find on here or elsewhere on the net.

Which marathon are you training for? I don't think I've ever got to running as much as four times a week with that kind of milage so could do with your advice on that one.

Thanks, am already a member of a club and they do have an interval session and I have seen improvements but as most of my running this year has been based on longer distances training it hasn't made much difference. so going to have a focused couple of months to look at improving the shorter stuff. The PB has been there for 5 months. Just wondering if anyone had any nuggets of advice. I have been down to Parkrun but will have to make a bit more of an effort to get down more often.

Training for Manchester marathon so it will change but my current training is made up off....

Hi all, this thread is a bit of a blast from the past, great to hear you have been up to. When I used to post here I was striving for sub 23 Parkrun, and just cracked 50 mins for 10k. Since my last post:

5k - 21:27, I'll soon be running my 50th Parkrun, and if I can get close or under 21 my 50th would be 10 minutes faster than my 1st.
10k - 47:17, it was part of my build up to my second HM.
HM - 1:45:07, ran 2 HM to date
Marathon - 4:28:49, ran my first marathon on Monday (Dublin) disappointed in my performance; was aiming for 3:50, and was well on target until wheels came of just before 20. Many lessons learned though.

I joined a running club when I decided to train for the marathon, and it's been great. Hoping to do some XC races once I get my legs back.

SmileyBob hello again! - losing weight made a big difference for me but depends where you are starting from. Each lb is supposedly worth 7 seconds off your 5k. Having access to the running track through running club has been a great help for better interval sessions etc.. I hardly miss a Parkrun, but I dont race it every week, I run it as a tempo run at least 2 out of every three. Outside of that, I found just running more ie upping mileage, improved my 5k and 10k. Mo Farah runs 120 miles a week to train for 5 and 10k, so there must be something in pure mileage!?

JLB3, thanks and as you know I've started on the weight loss so 7 seconds per lb does that apply to having put weight on as well then? I'm abit heavier than when I set my PB

I've not ran a 5km in anger since my PB back in June so perhaps need to give it a whirl and see where I'm upto, although my local parkrun (preston) is not considered a PB course. Got a 10km and a 10miler coming up first though.

JLB3, yes definately up for a sub 20 5K challenge though I think it may be a while before I crack 20 mins or even do a PB. During September I managed a string of parkrun PB's and a 5K PB at a race in London (Hyde Park) when it was dry underfoot. Unfortunately both the 2 local parkruns I do are partly on grass which has been wet/muddy & full of puddles so its a real struggle to get under 21 30 at the moment.

I'm having another go at the Hyde Park 5K race at the end of this month which is all on path so hopefully can get a bit nearer 20 mins.

Did a 10K road race today but was not enjoyable. Pi$$ed down during the race and poured with rain overnight. Loads of deep puddles and nearly fell over on some leaves early on so no PB today and nowhere near the 43 30 time I'm supposed to be capable of based on my best 5K time. Have another couple of 10k's before Xmas so hoping for better conditions and a much quicker time.

Hi JLB. Great work on the progress. I think when I first started posting on here we had 5k paces of around 26/27 mins so that's a great improvement. Nice one on the marathon also. What kind of training plan did you follow? I really want to get my milleage up as well but am having to be really patient (which im rubbish at). Have you suffered at all with much injury when training or did you do a lot of strengthening stuff as well? I think my problem is that I dont ever do a disciplined LSR. If I feel great after a few miles I speed up and then tank.

I think the sub 20min challenge is on though if anyone else is up for it? I'm going to have to resist the temptation for a couple of weeks whilst I get some longer runs in and will then go for one before the end of the year.

Sat - Parkrun - During marathon training I ran this as a tempo run, around 45 seconds off PB pace.

Sun - LSR I was already running aroung 8 miles on a Sunday, for the marathon I bumped this up by 2 miles every fortnight until I should have been up to 22 (I got sick and missed 20 and 22 week). The Sundays in between the bump I on did 10 mile LSR eg.

Parkrun and Circuits are about 5k from my house so I started running to and from them to build up mileage. Injury wise I was quite lucky, I only picked up a bit of an achellies strain early on ofter some tough hill runs, it only cost me 1 week of midweek runs as a precaution and I avoided hill work from then.

The illness and missing out on 2 of my long runs probably cost me on the day, but who knows, I now know that the Marathon is a different beast, I also now know what "the wall" is really like.

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